


Family Matters

by GingerEnvy



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Hawkeye (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Exaggeration, Feels, Guilt, Human Experimentation, Mentions of Arson, Parent-Child Relationship, Red Room stuffs, Super Soldier Serum, baby stealing, cloning, mentions of possible human incubator, of a sort?, outlandish accusations, winterhawk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:18:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5652157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerEnvy/pseuds/GingerEnvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint's never questioned his birth, he's never had a real reason to, that is until Tony gets bored and finds something odd in his blood which makes him question everything that he is and more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sara_holmes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_holmes/gifts), [copperbadge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperbadge/gifts).



> I can't remember where I saw the prompt, but I liked it and decided to do what I like with it. So here is my take.
> 
> EDIT: apparently the idea belonged to sara_holmes and I STOLE it. So I am gifting it to her! Ehehe. You are best! and also copperbadge! So credit must where credit is due and they are both equally to blame. ;P

The Avengers save the day, and the world goes on as it always does after every crisis; living, surviving, the unstoppable human race continuing on. But the ones who saved it have found it difficult to come together every time the world is in need from the varying places and varying distances they live without trouble, so thanks to Tony Stark, the man with the Tower full of space, it was decided to just stay together. It certainly made it easier to react in a timely manner and to get out to help all together when they left from the same place at the same time. And for most of them, it was nice to not have to be alone. Most days.

They had been living in the Tower for a few months now, getting to know each other with weekly movie nights and finding out that absolutely nothing gets past Natasha when it comes to plots, and that Clint is particularly sarcastic when it comes to archers in film, and Bruce and Tony find movie science ironic and amusing, Thor just enjoys the stories and Steve is still trying to catch up on his pop-culture. It was nice, but it was really only once a week, disregarding the occasional dinner they all gathered for when it was Clint's cooking, which was delicious and could feed an army, they were otherwise left to their own devices.

Which gave Tony plenty of time to get into trouble.

He really had no reason to but he was bored and Bruce was off on some convention tour centered around radiation, he was so popular it was unfair, he was due back tomorrow so they could have fun then, but right at that moment he was _bored_.

So naturally it gave him every excuse to mess around with the blood samples everyone had on file, just for fun of course. He really didn't have a background in biology so it really was just for the fun of it, he knew the basics, and it wasn't like he was going to find anything. He'd seen each of their blood work before at different times from injuries or whatever Bruce was working on, though his usually involved Steve's blood for obvious reasons.

Bruce's blood was no longer radioactive which was good, but it still had a distinctive genetic marker which would make it nearly impossible for him to truly go off the radar, even though he was damn good at it anyway. And then Natasha's blood, it was enhanced by the bastardized supersoldier serum she'd received in the Red Room (which he totally didn't know, nope, hadn't hacked her file even a little), but it wasn't really quite the same as Steve's, barely a similar signature in the blood at all, just the few things it had changed, like speed, stamina and strength which was noticeable in her DNA but only for those looking.

Steve's he'd seen many times over the years, and it was no different now than the first time he'd seen it displayed on some paperwork on his father's desk some thirty years ago, the serum's marks left on his DNA still evident even 70 years later. Clint's blood he'd only compared for giggles because Clint was normal, baseline human, according to his file, nothing special.

But Tony still looked, glanced at it even, but his eye was drawn to something that shouldn't be there, and when he noted that marker, that particular one. He thought he'd mixed something up so he checked again. And Again. And again, but it was still there, so he did a more in depth comparison and that was where things got _weird._

He was sure he'd just made a mistake, he'd have Bruce look at it when he got back. Yep. Bruce would set him straight, he was good at that.

But that was a whole day away he couldn't just let it sit, he had to know the truth.

His next option was going back to basic research and making sure what he was looking at was accurate, because he knew a lot and he was only human himself he was capable of forgetting irrelevant information. He looked into DNA and how paternity tests worked and what was looked at and all of that, he'd learned that all in biology in MIT which had been decades ago for him now, so a refresher wasn't actually a bad idea. Most of it was easy for him to remember, so it was good, but still weird considering the results he was trying to justify.

As a last effort he ran a paternity test with the samples, and since he didn't have the mother's it was interesting but still, half of Clint matched with Steve Rogers and that was just mind boggling.

He had to find another way to explain this but he just couldn't think of it, so he might as well go to the source, maybe he could trick Clint into spilling something, anything to explain this, as much of a long shot as that was, Tony was still going to do it.

"JARVIS, where's Barton?" he asked staring at Clint's picture on the screen, looking like the normal face of a man of SHIELD, like a random person in the crowd. Which Clint liked. Tony was just baffled by this, Clint better have an explanation.

" _Agent Barton is currently in the kitchen, Sir, shall I inform him you would like to speak with him?_ " the AI replied and Tony shook his head and stood up heading for the elevator.

"No, I'll come to him, I'm kinda hungry anyway," he could find out why Clint's file was wrong, why he was hiding. Why he was pretending to be normal when he clearly wasn't. Tony really needed to know. On top of him having an issue with not knowing, he also did not like the idea of being lied to, he'd had enough of that after Afghanistan, thank you very much.

" _It has been nearly 23 hours since you last ate, Sir, I would assume as much,_ " the AI said, with no small amount of disapproval, Tony flapped his hand.

"Pah, been longer before," he said, absently pushing the button for the common room on the elevator, too busy thinking more about Clint than actual food, he had to have a reason right? So maybe he needed to go about it delicately, and not full on like usual. He nodded, he'd be subtle for once in his life and not ask outright about it, just hint. Then they could go from there. Assuming it wasn't a mistake. It probably was, why would Clint have any reason to hide it? It had been 23 hours since he last ate and probably longer since he'd slept, perfectly good reasons for him to be mistaken. Tony was probably wrong. (Except Tony wasn't often wrong.)

Clint was exactly where JARVIS had said he was, puttering about the kitchen, making himself a sandwich, he was in the kitchen a lot actually, he made food for himself all the time even at random hours in the morning, and that made Tony think that maybe it wasn't so wrong, if he needed so much food, and then there was his coloring and his skills and- no it couldn't really be true, could it? It just was so far out of left field, that was why it was so hard to accept, maybe that was why he was hiding? People wouldn't believe him and call him a liar? That didn't really seem like a good enough reason though, if a simple DNA test proved otherwise...so what was it?

"Hey, what year were you born?" he asked, because that seemed to make sense to Tony, Clint looked a lot younger than how old his file had him listed as.

Clint turned around and arched an eyebrow at him, not surprised by his entrance at all if his lack of reaction was anything to go by, had he heard him come- oh wait the elevator dinged when it came up, duh. Tony was obviously just letting his imagination run wild, he needed to sleep, and then this would all make sense. Yeah.

Clint stared at him for a moment, "1980...why?" he asked, "Haven't you hacked my file yet?"

"Well, yeah, I was just double checking, so you're 35?" he asked, and Clint nodded in confirmation, "You don't look 35, you look like you could be early 20s, easy," Tony said crossing his arms and Clint shrugged, but eyed Tony, probably noting his baggy eyes.

"If you say so," he replied blandly, not playing along and that made Tony suspicious, "How long has it been since you've slept?"

"Are you implying that I'm sleep deprived and thus making outlandish observations?" Tony asked and Clint's lips twitched, trying to hold back a smile.

"No, but I noticed you still didn't answer the question," he said, sounding amused now, "Which leads me to think that you're talking nonsense because of lack of sleep."

" _It has indeed been nearly 37 hours since Mr. Stark has slept, Agent Barton, he is likely not functioning at full capacity,_ " JARVIS replied and Clint bobbed his head and hummed in understanding.

"Wh-what? Et tu JARVIS?" Tony gasped in shock, though he wasn't really that shocked, "What did you do to my AI, Barton?"

"I didn't do anything, he just likes me better," Clint grinned fiendishly, putting the finishing touches on his sandwich, and wow how many layers of meat was that? Tony shook his head to clear himself from the distraction. 

" _I am simply looking out for your well being, Sir,_ " JARVIS replied with a slightly innocent tone and Tony scowled because he clearly was far too good at coding because JARVIS could grow all on his own and pretend to be innocent when he was clearly being a traitorous, conniving Skybot!

"Aaaahg, traitors all of you," Tony huffed and turned around to storm out dramatically, but then spun back around, "You're trying to distract me! I was trying to ask you things!"

Clint had a bite of his sandwich in his mouth by then and was only looking at Tony with mild amusement, he swallowed, "What 'things' was that?"

"I...well, aside from you barely looking over 25, do you realize you eat all the time?" Tony asked because he was pretty sure the last time he'd seen Clint he'd been in the kitchen too. This was making more and more sense, Clint was hiding it from them. He had to be. But why?

"...okay?" Clint was looking confused now, "I tend to work out a lot, burns a lot of calories," he replied shrugging, "Gotta keep in shape if I'm gonna keep up with the rest of the team, you know? You got a point to all this?"

"...no," Tony frowned because that wasn't quite the response he'd been hedging for, "You know who your parents are?"

Clint gave him and odd look, "I thought you said you'd read my file?"

"Well yeah, I was just double checking," Tony said nonchalantly, Clint gave him another look then shrugged.

"Yeah, Edith and Harold Barton, they died when I was six, she was a nurse or something, and he was a butcher, we lived above the shop, why?" he asked frowning as he wiped crumbs off the counter and wait where did the sandwich go? Damn he ate fast.

"Nothing...nothing," Tony replied, "Just you know, making sure you're not an alien."

Clint looked at him again, his eyes were really blue, almost the same shade as Steve's- "Whatever you say Tony, I'll be in the range if you want to make sure I'm also not a ghost."

"Thanks- oh wait could I get a blood sample from you- totally unrelated to the ghost and alien theory, I'm trying to get a few things worked out for all of us, a neutralizer for if we get injected with something, I want to have something that will work for all of us and easy access, plenty on hand, and your natural immune system won't fight, you know, be prepared," he said, and that was actually not a bad idea, he should work on something like that, but still he was going to double check even though he was almost positive now. It was too uncanny to not be true.

"That's not highly suspicious, JARVIS is Tony really Tony?" Clint asked, eyeing him shrewdly.

" _His scan matches that of Anthony Edward Stark, so yes, Agent Barton, Tony is Tony,_ " JARVIS replied while Tony scowled, about to make a comment but Clint replied before he got a chance. 

"Yeah, alright," Clint said and followed Tony to the elevator and then down to the lab, he used his phone to make sure none of his finds were on the screen when they entered. Clint was hiding for a reason, so clearly he wouldn't be pleased if Tony was looking into it. Tony would look into it and find out why he was hiding, because clearly that was important. If it was a good reason, he wouldn't speak of it again, but if it was bad, Tony had a duty to not let it remain hidden, didn't he?

Tony made it quick, getting the blood sample fresh, because _maybe_ he was wrong and _maybe_ they'd mixed up their blood, as unlikely as that was at this point he still wanted to make sure before he made any solid conclusions, he avoided Clint's eyes because he was watching him closely anyway.

Tony smiled, going for reassuring, when he was done, "Sorry, not as good as Bruce, but you know, at least now you'll be covered for later, won't need more," he said, noting the bruise now on the inside of Clint's arm, "And if you see Natasha tell her to come down, I need another blood sample from her too."

"Alright," Clint said slipping off the table, "Will do, she'll probably do it herself though, you suck at it," he said and Tony flipped him off but didn't deny it, Clint chuckled softly then slipped out probably to go to the range like he'd said before. He _did_ train a lot. But then again, so did Steve.

Tony waited for the elevator to be gone and then five minutes more before he ran his test again. He stared at the computer in anticipation, figuring he just had it all wrong and this would set him straight. The computer pinged. Except, no such luck. Same result.

Holy shit.

Clint _couldn't_ be, it just made no sense, how could he be related to _Steve Rogers?_

They were both very different, except for their unwavering stubbornness and undying sense of helping those in need, and maybe the sass was genetic? But no, okay Tony was over thinking things, Steve's sass was pretty different from Clint's snark, and Steve had a problem with bullies, whereas Clint helped dogs that were in trouble. So okay they were different but...but there was still clearly some similarities. Whether they were because of genetics or how their lives had gone, well that was something Tony couldn't actually figure out. But he could figure out the connection between them and lay it all out so it was irrefutable.

"How?" Tony muttered and then pulled up the information on Clint's parents, Harold Benjamin Barton and Edith Abigail Barton (nee Johnson), Harold owned a butcher shop that had been owned by his family for two generations located in Waverly Iowa, Edith had been a childcare assistant at a business in the next town over to help pay bills, nothing totally remarkable about either of them, and Clint did look like his mother, a little, but at the same time it could be the power of suggestion, she had blond hair and blue eyes just like Clint did. Clint didn't look anything like his father, which could mean he looked more like the mailman or Tony really was right and he wasn't related to his parents at all.

But, the timing just didn't work, 40 years was a big time gap. Tony frowned and looked back at Clint's blood tests and then back at his parents, then took a closer look at his mom. Her mom had been a nurse in the war, dad was a soldier (no where near where Steve had been), it was classic nightingale syndrome, oh boy, nothing worth noting there then. Back to Edith Barton then, she'd been born in Waverly Iowa, gone to school there, and married her high school sweetheart after graduating, not uncommon for the time period, she'd gone on to have one son first, Barney and then have Clint five years later while she was working as a childcare assistant. She'd worked until she'd died six years after Clint's birth because his dad was a drunk and an asshole, well Tony could relate to that, but still. Nothing stood out, not immediately at least, he went over the information again more slowly. 

A childcare assistant. Hmm.

Tony dug deeper and found she'd worked for a company called 'HR Solutions', apparently she'd worked in the daycare for the company, that was nothing unusual, no red flags yet, but things like this were rarely so easy. So Tony went even deeper, looking at coworkers, and other positions, there were far too many childcare assistants for it to be justifiable with how many associates worked there and thinking if all of them had kids, there were still too many in the childcare area. There were dozens of them, covers for another job perhaps? Or were they really there to take care of children? Clearly more children were there than adults. That was suspicious.

What was HR Solutions doing with that many kids then? According to the top layer it was a basic insurance firm, with a specialty in families with young children. So families could bring their own kids to the daycare? Sure, but why would you need that many childcare workers? It just didn't add up which was really what made it all more suspicious. He had to look into it more, see what was underneath it all, but it was becoming harder to wade through, there was corrupt data and useless information all wrapped together in a big tangled mess of insanity and layered over the important bits, any normal person would give up looking further because it would just be impossible and take forever to do. _He_ could do it of course, he was a genius after all, but it would still take him some time.

It was a very old system and it took him a few hours to sort it out, it was from the 70s, yikes, before his genius had really any say in technology, but it was an advanced network at the time sure, so clearly not just some run of the mill insurance company, so that was obviously a cover for whatever was happening behind the scenes. Which included small children and that made dealing with families a good cover, it gave them a good reason to look into necessities for children. There was a list of things they had a lot of in storage, bottles and diapers, formula and pacifiers and lots of other things used for babies. To take care of a lot of babies in fact. And then he'd cracked a particularly hard bit of coding and there it was; records for dozens and dozens of babies, 58 of them in total, no names, just numbers which made it impossible to link one to Clint. That was...odd. Babies were usually precious to their families and naming them was a big deal, and none of them had a name. Or maybe they did but the names were hidden for their protection? Possible, but he didn't think so.

Clint must've been one of those babies. It made the most sense for him to be, if he wasn't actually related to his family, then obviously this was where he'd come from, but...how had he gotten there? Maybe they were stolen from their families? Maybe his mother really _was_ his mother and had needed the money and had to offer him up as a part of whatever they were doing? But that would have nothing to do with the blood results which obviously meant that wasn't the case and that things were really a lot more complicated than that. Maybe they had injected him with Steve's blood to see what was going on, that seemed like it could be a viable option, he'd have to see if there were any other studies of that. To double check, there were probably certain DNA markers if that was the case too, he'd need to check. He wouldn't put it past someone to use Steve's blood in that capacity. So many people thought he was fair game for everything; being America's culmination of science and what not, which was a whole new can of worms he could save for another day. Right now he needed to figure out why Clint seemed to have no explanation for being Steve's...son? Something like that. Tony didn't really want to think about it too hard.

But there wasn't anything to explain what was going on or why and who was conducting it, which was making it more frustrating and Tony was still sleep deprived and hungry. But whatever he could take care of that later, he needed to figure this out.

He didn't know what came next, all of the information after that was very convoluted and some of it was beyond corrupted which made it make very little sense without wafting through little by little to fix it as he did. And all of the data was hard to wade through in the first place like someone had scrambled it on purpose, which he was not surprised about, whoever thought it was a good idea to do experiments on babies was clearly fucked up. But Tony would be fine in unscrambling it, he had been coding this stuff in diapers, he could figure it out, it would just take longer than he wanted it to.

He had to go through all of the code the old fashioned way since none of his programs recognized it anymore it was so old, he needed to change that, he was in the middle of writing a program to just do it for him when his elevator pinged.

He jumped in surprise and stared as Natasha walked over to him, elegant brow arched in question.

"Jumpy, Stark? Looking at things you're not supposed to again?" she asked in a near purr, glancing at the code on the screen for a moment then back to him.

"No, just focused is all," he coughed, she gave him a look, obviously not convinced, "Anyway, I need your blood, gonna come up with a way to preemptively stop people trying to fuck with us, at least through our blood," he shrugged, "Came up with it just spontaneously, but it's a good idea, _brilliant_ idea, and if we do get sick, we should have a handy way to get better too, don't you think? I think so, I hate being sick-"

"Yes, yes," she said and held her hand out for a syringe, he handed it over without trying to talk her into letting him do it, she was faster anyway, "Don't be an idiot, Stark, make sure you get some rest soon, and food, we don't need you looking into things you shouldn't because you're not in your right mind," she glanced at the screen again, eyes narrowing just slightly, but then she didn't say another word and left.

Tony watched her go and wondered, did she know what he was doing? But no how could she? God, he was being paranoid.

He shook his head and turned back to his screen, setting Natasha's blood aside so he could work on the other thing later because it was a good idea and he should definitely still do it but, first things first, Clint.

His program had been finished (he suspected JARVIS with a little pleased flutter, his AI was the best, of course) and started to run in the background and now he could see that the test results hadn't been wrong. HR Solutions had been doing something with the babies and Clint had to be one of those babies, so they'd done something to Clint, and it had involved Steve's blood. So that was an absolute fact, Clint and Steve were related. That was an absolute fact. And it was still really really weird.

But he still needed to know how that came to be and why and who was responsible, because for once it looked like the sperm donor was off the hook, Steve had been in ice during Clint's conception, so he had no responsibility in this. Lucky him.

Tony snorted darkly, knowing there were tons of people who wished for that kind of thing to happen, but- uhg, he was drifting he really was tired, but he needed to find the rest of the information which was proving to be totally impossible, he'd fixed all of the corrupted data he could, but that didn't make a difference. It was missing major pieces and so, he couldn't even finish his research and now he was trying to find if there was something else on this damned HR Solutions place elsewhere.

"Tony?"

Tony jumped again and turned around to stare wide eyed at the person behind him. And his bleary eyes blinked up at his curly haired science bro.

"Wha- Bruce, what time is it? You're not supposed to be back until tomorrow," he said staring dumbly.

"It is tomorrow," Bruce said mildly, "What are you working on?"

"Well I think I might have found Barton's big bad secret because I was wondering why he looked so young for being 35 and I just couldn't believe it was from proper food and health precautions not in our line of work, that's just not possible and I looked into his file and his blood and I found out. I know his secret, but I want you to double check, even though I'm not wrong and-" Bruce placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and squeezed to cut him off, looking worried.

"Tony how long have you been awake?" he asked gently, he knew the manic way in which he was speaking was partly due to shock from whatever he'd found and the rest due to lack of rest and probably nutrition.

" _It has been 52 hours since Mr. Stark has last slept and 38 since he had any proper food aside from alcohol and a bagel_ ," JARVIS said, obviously unimpressed with his maker. 

"Alright," Bruce said pulling Tony up from his seat, "You need to eat and sleep, and while you do, I'll double check what you found, okay?" he said, obviously humoring the man, he'd said Clint was keeping a secret? That wouldn't be a big surprise, he obviously had many secrets, but something that had rattled Tony this much? He did need to go through the information then, even if he felt like it was none of his business but he would humor the man if it made sure Tony got some food and was in bed before he did so.

Tony flapped his hand at Bruce but did start towards the elevator with the intention of getting something to eat and then dropping dead for a few hours, or ten.

Bruce sat down with a sigh, he was somewhat tired from his trip, but it had been, for lack of a better word, fun. Everyone had known exactly who he was and while some people were obviously scared, most of them made a point of trying to treat him like a fellow scientist and not a possible catastrophe. It had been nice, and nothing had happened. It really had been _nice_.

He'd look through Tony's project and then go to bed. And hopefully Tony was just exaggerating, he really didn't want to invade Clint's privacy, but on the off chance that it was dangerous, he would glance through Tony's work. 

It didn't take too long to just review it, but of course after reading it. Just a review obviously was not what was needed.

The blood work was all done precisely, the DNA tests and patriarchal matches and well, there was absolutely no question on that matter. Bruce did his own test too, but Clint was definitely directly descended from Steve. 

It was almost obvious with how easy it was to compare their blood work, how had no one noticed before? That was something Bruce wanted to know, he would have to look into that.

But first, why would Clint hide this? He had his reasons, obviously. But still it seemed like a big deal and would probably be impossible to hide from SHIELD, but there was no mention of it in his files. That was suspicious, it was like they didn't think it was important enough to include. That was another question that needed and answer.

The next was who was the one responsible for getting Clint born, because clearly, Steve hadn't been around to help. Luckily that was already spelled out in the information they already had.

Bruce wasn't nearly as good as Tony was with coding, but luckily he'd done all of the hard work and he just had to read more about the company doing it and maybe tweak a few data streams here and there, Tony must have been too tired to notice them. But they were important. Very important if the emblem at the bottom of the document was anything to go by. Honestly he shouldn't have been surprised by who was responsible.

 _ **Hydra**_.

Bruce took a deep breath to calm his heart rate and then kept reading.

Hydra had funded several locations around the world to do exactly the same as HR Solutions was covering, (HR Solutions - _Hydra Rebirth_ Solutions, jeez that was so obvious it was frustrating) to recreate the supersoldier known as Steve Rogers AKA Captain America, somehow they had gotten their hands on his blood samples and had started cloning him, but the clones would always die off, they needed something more to keep the embryos stable. They decided to add another person to the equation, as it turned out a girl from the Russian program called Red Room was offered as the other half of the equation her DNA helped to balance them out and thus they suddenly had hundreds of mini super soldier babies all over the world.

Clint was one of them. 

Bruce wasn't sure what to make of this new information, Clint never really acted like a super soldier. He seemed to like being the only 'normal' human on the team, nothing special about him, he'd said that once, and seemed totally okay with it. He had never slipped either never carried more weight than it seemed he could, never went faster than slightly above average, he was giving off the impression of 100% normal human. He was a very good actor if this was the case.

Bruce leaned back and rubbed the bridge of his nose, knocking his glasses askew, he supposed he should have expected something would happen after so many months without an incident of disaster proportions, they weren't good being idle, none of them could just sit there and wait for the world to come to them and clearly it led to Tony being super nosy.

But if Hydra was involved somehow, they had to make the others aware. Especially Steve since he had a very good reason to be upset about it. Hydra had taken his DNA and made clones of him, that was really messed up.

Bruce went through the data again, it all made sense. However, there were still vital pieces missing, connecting Clint to one of the babies in the lab. While it was pretty obvious, they didn't have solid proof which did make it more difficult. They had to do some more digging in order to do that. Like how had Clint ended up with his family? Were there more men out there like Clint? Perhaps it was a sleeper thing, maybe Clint was simply waiting for a signal to reveal himself? That could be very possible, and that made him even more dangerous, because no one would suspect it. Bruce didn't want to assume that was the truth, so it made sense to find out more if this was the case, it really did.

Except he still didn't feel comfortable about it, he had a history of human experimentation, and well...it happening to babies. That very thought made the Other Guy rumble deep in his subconscious. And to think it happened to Clint...well, Hulk would probably not be asleep for much longer if Bruce thought more on it.

He would insist on more research, and Tony would probably agree when he was no longer in his manic sleep deprived state. They still had a few things to account for, but with all of this evidence, it seemed to be that Tony's nosy tendencies had really given them something to look into.

~

The next day, however they got no chance to do further research, instead they were called out because of a breakout of giant mutant kittens, they looked cute...and then clawed your face off.

"I feel kind of morally uncertain, shooting kittens," Clint drawled, "Even if they did take a chunk out of Cap's arm, no offence Cap."

"No smash kittens!" Hulk said from somewhere beyond and Clint chuckled softly.

"It's okay big guy, you don't have to smash them, just keep them from hurting anyone else," Clint told him and the green head nodded, he didn't look too happy about it though.

"None taken, Hawkeye, now please shoot the homicidal kittens," Steve replied with a slight drawl and didn't comment on the interaction with Hulk because he knew Hulk liked Clint the best of them all, Clint laughed and started shooting the kittens with ease, because they were pretty destructive, one of them had bitten Steve in the arm and taken out a large bite of flesh, so they obviously weren't normal kittens.

"There's something I never thought I'd hear Captain America say," Tony said swooshing past Clint to take out some more of them down another block, "Are these things multiplying? Jeez...I never thought I'd get sick of seeing kittens."

"That is not something I'm surprised to hear Iron Man say," Clint said on a laugh.

"Oh, screw you, Barton," Tony huffed.

Clint only laughed as he took out a few more of the cats with ease, this was almost like fun for him, that was, until a few dozen of them surprised him from behind, he hadn't heard them coming up until the last second.

Having about thirty kittens try to maul you at once was not something Clint Barton recommended he pulled back his bow, and then their vicious little eyes started flashing red.

"Shit!" Clint hissed, "They're explosive!" he cried it just as they ticked and went boom, sending him flying off the roof.  

"Clint!" Steve yelled as he watched the man fall, he was at an angle where he couldn't shoot his bow, and was seconds away from slamming into the building adjacent, but at the impossibly last second Clint twisted mid air and shot up his grappling arrow. Steve let out a breath of relief as the arrow tugged him away from the other building, he swung around and landed on a balcony.

"I'm okay," Clint said, slightly breathless, "But seriously, exploding homicidal kittens...next time, I'm tappin' out," he groaned leaning against the brick of the building.

"Wait until next time Hawkeye, you've got more coming your way," Steve said, "Can you take them?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, not even out of breath," he said cocky as can be, "Besides, I got some explosives of my own."

"God, you are one cheesy bastard," Tony drawled.

"That's what makes me the normal one, my unappreciated sense of humor and love for cheese," Clint replied with a laugh.

"Yeah...don't think that's how it works," Tony drawled, "And you are anything but normal."

"I'm the normal one compared to all of you," Clint said cheekily.

"...uh-huh," Tony said, frowning in his suit. But now was not the time to bring anything up, he had a job to do. Now that he knew they were robots, because JARVIS' scans hadn't been conclusive before, he could find the transmitter and disable it. 

"You're just jealous," Clint sang just as his bow twanged.

"Hawkeye, focus please, Iron Man can you take them down?" Steve said, throwing about five of them off at once with his shield.

"Yeah, I'm zeroing in on the transmitter now, they'll be sleeping soon," Tony replied zooming past building towards the source, it really was ridiculously easy to find, which niggled in the back of his head why was it so easy?

"Good, I'm out of arrows and -Ow! Bad kitty!" Clint cried over the comms, "Damn they've got sharp claws, hurry up Tony!"

"I'm on it," Tony replied hovering above the transmitter he shot it with a repulsor ray, it sparked then gave a loud 'POOM' and went up in smoke, "And it's gone!"

"That's great why are they still moving then?" Clint asked and gave an exaggerated, "Ow!"

"What?" Tony snapped, "I just destroyed it, they should be down!"

"Nope still moving, ow, ooow, ow! Okay...wait now they're not attacking they're....." Clint trailed off, distracted by something.

"Hawkeye!" Steve barked.

"I'm okay...they're um...acting like kittens...they were kind of climbing my leg, and now they want snuggles? I'm confused, I thought they were robots," he said and Steve looked around, the kittens were just padding around now, rubbing up against things and batting at things to play. 

"Iron Man?" Steve said.

"I don't know, they're giving off the same readings," Tony replied frustrated, things were not what they appeared.

"I believe I have found the problem, my friends," Thor said, he didn't sound happy.

"Thor?" Steve prompted.

"The kittens are...chimera of sorts, but with your machines, part machine part animal," Thor said darkly, "For what purpose do humans turn to such things?"

"Cyborg kittens, dammit," Tony swore a few more more times, "Because they're trying to play into the humanity people feel towards kittens, yet want weapons, we didn't want to hurt them at first either and only did because they hurt us, and then we thought they were robots and didn't feel bad about that at all...and now we know...they aren't robots but both...fuck, what kind of asshole..."

"Hulk like kittens," the Hulk grunted over the comms and Clint turned down the street he was on to see the Hulk impossibly covered in the furry things, nuzzling him and playing with his fingers and toes, his lap was covered and his shoulders were occupied by three each side, he even had one on his head. Clint burst into laughter at the sight.

"Hey there big guy," he greeted, "Having fun?"

Hulk nodded and held one of the tiny things in his hand and pet it with such gentleness, most wouldn't think him capable, "Cupid like kitten."

"Oh yeah?" Clint asked, not at all sure what he meant by that and Hulk didn't expand on it so he shrugged and just leaned against him and clicked his comm, "So, what are we gonna do with them? I don't think it's....humane, to kill them all, yeah?"

"SHIELD is on their way," Natasha said, she'd been quite the whole battle and for good reason, "And I have the one who staged it in custody, he's not talking yet...but I can change that."

"Scary," Clint laughed softly, and knew she definitely could get him to open up.

"Great," Steve said, "Let's try to gather them up for when SHIELD gets here...we'll find a solution later," he let out a soft breath he thought it best to leave it to SHIELD to decide what to do.

"Right, let's head back then, anyone have any spare pants for Bruce?" Clint asked, "Assuming Hulk is willing to share the kittens with him."

"No share," Hulk huffed, "Puny Banner not have kittens."

Clint burst into laughter again, "Oh Jade Jaws, you are the best," he grinned, "But we do need to go, we'll buy you a kitten later okay? Tony can make you a kitten room even, but we have to leave them here."

Hulk snorted, displeased but he plucked the kittens off of him one by one, Clint watched with a fond smile but then cocked his head to the side in question.

"Hey Hulk? What did you mean I was like the kittens before?" he asked.

"Cupid like kitten, Cupid is stronger inside than look outside," Hulk grunted, but huffed in frustration obviously not having the words he wanted to explain, "Puny Banner know."

"Oh...okay," Clint said, even more confused than before, but he shrugged, who knew what he meant, maybe he was just complimenting Clint, whatever, he didn't mind and wasn't particularly bothered by it. Hulk was good. "Ready to go?"

Hulk growled a bit but nodded and stood up, following Clint to the extraction point, a few minutes later Bruce was there and some clean pants awaited.

Clint noticed the look Bruce was giving him but didn't ask, he was probably wondering about the conversation he and Hulk had, Bruce was retaining more memory of things now than before, but not everything, still he'd obviously been privy to it. 

Either way, he didn't mention it, he had no problem with it, if Bruce did he could come to him. And besides he was hungry and ready to eat some pizza and watch some mindless TV, though definitely nothing on YouTube that linked to kitten videos.

~

The moment Tony was back in the Tower he headed back to his lab, because he needed to know, he wasn't surprised when Bruce joined him after a few hours of decompressing and eating about two and a half pizzas because the Hulk took a lot of energy so he needed to refuel. Tony had not eaten, he was still working on trying to find the missing pieces in the data the'yd compiled, he was having absolutely no luck and it was making him even more frustrated about it.

"Tony," Bruce said softly, "You need to take a break, this isn't worth your health okay? Just take a moment and then come back to it."

"Yeah well, it's important to all of our healths', I don't have time to come back to it. If he just so happens to be a plant or sleeper or whatever, we could all be in danger, and that means we need to know soon and that we _need to know_ ," Tony replied, not even looking up from his workstation, scowling at it in his frustration.

Bruce let out a stream of air through his nose to keep his calm. It wasn't that he disagreed with Tony, because it was possible Clint was a sleeper or any number of things really it was just that he didn't think jumping head first into it was wise, or in anyway a good idea. He'd had time to think and he knew Hulk was right, Clint was like the kittens; stronger on the inside than he appeared on the outside, Clint was covering his strength and his speed and intelligence by acting as normal as possible. To fit in? Possibly. To just have a normal life, as normal as he could? Maybe. He could just want to forget and pretend like it wasn't real. Anything was possible, but that included him being potentially dangerous to the rest of them.

"But that doesn't mean we have any right to be invasive about it," Bruce said, "Things like this....you should be more delicate about it."

"No, Bruce, this is Hydra okay, there isn't any evidence to say Clint _wasn't_ made by them okay? So what if Clint is a sleeper? What if he's just waiting for a sign, until we know, we're all in danger here," Tony insisted, turning to him now, "We need to make sure. He almost single handedly took down the Hellicarrier, there's nothing to keep him from taking down the Tower."

"I think he would have taken us all out by now if that was the case," Bruce said, squaring his jaw, because Hulk had a hand in almost taking out the Hellicarrier, but Tony seemed to like to forget that, "He's been around all of us while we were sleeping before, he knows the lay out of the building better than you do, he could have snuck in on anyone of us and offed us easily. But he hasn't because we are what's stopping him from taking out the Tower, SHIELD values his loyalty, and we should too."

"Oh please, SHEILD doesn't know either, he'd a class act, he's fooled them too," Tony snorted, "It's not as simple as trusting him! This is a big deal, okay? We need to know the truth, it isn't just us who're in danger."

"Then we can ask him, but we should try one more time to find something else, anything to help explain things. And then when we do ask we don't do it in front of everyone else, at least be considerate about this," Bruce said, he admitted that he too wanted an explanation, because the files they had were incomplete someone had done a job to the data, like they didn't want the whole truth out the rest was scrubbed from every drive in the world, the only affirmation they had was that Clint and Steve were related. Everything else was conjecture, but that didn't seem to be a problem for Tony.

"I've already looked through every database, every corner of the internet, there is nothing else, it's all been wiped from existence and for a reason and Clint is the only one who knows why, so he's the next resource. JARVIS where is he?" Tony demanded, and Bruce knew he had issues, trust issues pretty obviously, there had to be a reason- oh. Obadiah Stane, of course. That explained his intensity on the matter, but still. 

" _He is in the kitchen with the rest of the team sir,_ " JARVIS replied but he did not sound pleased.

Bruce grabbed his arm before he could get to the elevator, "Tony please, be more rational about this, if you go barging in and just shooting your mouth off...you could make things go badly."

"That's why everyone else can be there, in case it all goes to shit, we can take him down," Tony said and Bruce opened his mouth to argue that because that was really not okay in his books.

"Tony-"

"No, this is happening," Tony said, "I can't let it stand any longer," he tossed Bruce's grip off and then stormed for the elevator, making is shut before Bruce could get in too.

"Dammit," Bruce growled and turned toward the stairs. Thank god it was only three floors up.

~

"...so then it was right there three feet in front of my face and all I could do was say 'nice kitty' and then run for my goddamn life," Clint said dramatically, telling a story that had likely been sparked from their experiences earlier in the day, he was telling it with a huge grin and a laugh, enjoying himself, Steve and Thor were in the kitchen next to him where he sat on the counter, Natasha sat in the breakfast nook reading a book, she was likely decompressing after interrogating the kitten man, he'd been easy but she always had to take a moment to reorient her head after interrogation, so she was reading, but her lips were quirked up, obviously listening in on his story, even if she had heard this one before.

"How did you get away without getting mauled?" Steve asked after he had finished laughing and Clint shrugged, glancing over at the door when Tony came in, still wearing some of his Iron Man suit just the boots and some of the leg armor, but still, the guy must have been half out of it again. 

"I did get a scratch on my back, but I was able to climb up the side of the wall high enough it couldn't reach me," he said, "And my kevlar protected me for the most part so it wasn't a bad scratch, not even a scar now."

"Why not just take out the beast? Would that not have been easier than running?" Thor asked and Clint shrugged again this time spotting Bruce come in, though he was flustered and flush, his glasses a bit askew and it looked like he'd run a few miles.

"Not really, I mean it was a lion, twice my weight and I only had my arrows, besides it didn't really do anything wrong, it was just protecting its territory, not its fault someone threw me into its enclosure," Clint replied, noting the way Bruce kept glancing at Tony.

"You survived being thrown into a lion's enclosure?" Tony asked, his eyes narrowing, like he was suspicious of something, "That doesn't seem like something most people would walk away unharmed from, most enclosures are at least ten feet drops, sometimes more."

"I landed on a bush, cushioned the blow, though I still had bruises," Clint said, a little confused by the interrogation, "Why?" 

"And you managed to climb the side you said?" Bruce asked looking at him now, his question came off as honestly curious as opposed to Tony's suspicious interrogation.

"Yeah, parkour, you know? Use the tree next to it, run at the wall, jump off, hit the tree use the momentum to push off the tree and then I was able to cling to the top edge and pull myself up, easy for someone with a circus background," Clint cocked his head to the side, they knew he did stuff like that, they'd seen him pull feats like that before, "You two okay? It's not like you guys to miss some basic physics."

"Oh, right, I forgot to keep that in mind, I-" Bruce started, smiling a little bit, like that had alleviated some kind of worry, Clint was confused. Yup.

"We _don't_ miss a lot," Tony interrupted, making Clint's eyes go to him as he crossed his arms, "In fact we make a point to know as much as we can...about everyone. Is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

"...um...what?" Clint looked at Tony, eyebrows raised in confusion, he looked between him and Bruce, who suddenly looked a lot more nervous, "What are you getting on about, Stark?"

"Come on Clint, we _know_ , this is your last chance to tell everyone else before we do. Honestly the least you could have done was tell Steve, he had the right to know about you," Tony insisted, this whole situation was starting to make him manic, he did not like being lied to, he'd had quite enough of that, first Obadiah and then Romanov, Fury and now Barton, seriously he was getting sick and tired of this.

"What are you talking about? What about Steve?" Clint looked over at the super soldier in confusion and Steve shrugged back at him, but his lips were pursed in that way that meant he was calculative, of the situation or of the words, who knew, but he was listening now, closely. Whenever he was involved in anything...well, things tended to get _interesting_. 

" _Tony_ ," Bruce hissed, feeling very invasive and uncomfortable, "Maybe it would be better if you did this somewhere more pri-"

"No, he's had plenty of time to tell all of us and he didn't, so now everyone gets to know, right now. JARVIS put it up on the screen," he gestured at the screen on the wall, everyone looked, and there was silence as everyone stared at said screen, it was more of a confused silence considering it was just two revolving pictures of some DNA strands.

"Forgive me, Anthony, but what are we looking at? It looks much like something we have on Asgard, the life stamp each individual has but is in fact unique to each person, is that what this is?" Thor asked and Tony blinked, thrown for a moment, apparently Asgard had DNA, go figure, "And if I am correct...these two life stamps have some similarities?"

"Um, yeah, this is DNA, it's two separate people but they have matching alleles, one is patriarchal, which makes them directly related. As it so happens it's Clint's...and Steve's," Tony said making the two aforementioned men freeze, and then look more closely at the screen. Little icons of their faces moved down on the screen next to each strand to differentiate.

"What?" Clint whispered as he frowned, "How is my DNA similar to Cap's? That doesn't make any sense," he muttered, but it was more to himself than the others. He was genuinely confused, he'd never seen anything like that before. 

"Oh stop it, Barton, give it up, we know the truth! You were made from Steve's DNA by Hydra! It's all here! We found all of it, you can't hide anymore!" Tony snapped, waving at the screen which now split to show all of their research done on the subject and while he wasn't still totally sure that was the truth, he thought that if Clint knew that they knew the truth, he'd give up any act he had held on to.

" _What?_ Hydra?! What the- what the hell are you talking about?!" Clint slid off of the counter and gestured at the screen, "I'm not- where are you even getting this from? I've never even heard- _what_? This is crazy! I don't have super powers or any special shit! I'm _not_ related to Steve."

Bruce put his hand on Tony's shoulder before he could respond, hoping to maybe try and rectify the situation before it got too far out of hand, but it seemed too far gone for that he was still going to try, "Clint...how much do you know about your birth?" he asked instead and Clint frowned, thrown by the sudden change in interrogator.

"I don't know, I was a _baby_ ," he replied with exasperation, rolling his eyes.

"I know, I meant did your mother ever tell you anything that might have made you...question things?" he asked instead and Clint shook his head, he really didn't know.

"No. She loved me, she protected me when my ass of a father beat me, she said I was her little miracle, that without me she'd have been lost. But I don't know, she died when I was six, I can't exactly ask her what she meant, did you want any more incredibly personal tidbits about my life? Maybe you want to know that I had to shoot my own brother? Or how about that I grew up in several foster homes where I usually didn't get fed or got beaten for asking, sometimes both," he growled, his fists clenched in anger. He couldn't help but get defensive about this, his whole life had been pretty hard until now, it was like fat just wanted to take a big shit on him after he'd finally found a little slice of contentedness. 

The angry declarations caused a pause, and before anyone could even say anything he kept talking.

"Where the hell did this all come from?!" he demanded, "What the hell kind of idea got in your head that made you think I was what- Steve's long lost kid? HA! That's ridiculous, no offence Cap, but really? Me related to Captain America? I mean honestly, I'd probably have turned out a hell of a lot better than this if I was, I'm just a hick from the circus, get your damn shit together, this is ridiculous," he snorted, glaring at Tony and Bruce, but mostly Tony.

"No, you could be a sleeper, you could be an agent of Hydra and not even know, Clint! You're putting us all in danger," he insisted, but he was losing steam, those little pieces of knowledge had not been in Clint's file.

"I think I'd know by now if I was a Hydra sleeper, thanks, SHIELD looks into things like that you know," he said, crossing his arms and looking utterly unimpressed.

"But you can't really know, I know-"

Clint gave him a disgusted look, "You don't know everything Stark, and you sure as hell don't know shit about me."

"Well you could still be-"

"I'm not! And I'm sure as fuck not some supersoldier spawn!" Clint snarled, "I don't even know where you got this shit from!"

"Clint..." Bruce said softly, "We're so sorry...we thought, if you weren't...you would at least know..." 

"But I'm not!"

"I'm sorry...but you are," he said, gesturing to the screen, "There's enough evidence to convince me that you are related to Steve, that is irrefutable, and the rest...it just makes sense. Your mother worked as a childcare assistant for the base that the babies came from...it's...not far off to think that possibly she stole you away and kept you as her own."

"But I'm not anything like Steve," Clint stressed and Tony snorted.

"You jump off of 40 story buildings and survive! You eat almost as much as Steve does, and you heal fast!" he gestured at Clint's arms where the kittens had gotten their claws into him, the scratches were already well on their way to healed.

"So? I'm reckless, lucky, hungry, and have a lot of vitamin C! That doesn't mean I'm related to Steve! Or a- a Hydra experiment!" he scoffed in disgust, "Jesus, is this some kind of sick joke?"

"No, Clint, I double checked, _triple checked_...your DNA is a match for Steve's, this isn't a joke...I mean...you do look very similar," Bruce said glancing between the two and noting that Steve had yet to say a word, Thor was behind them, watching. He also glanced over at Natasha, who was poised like a cat ready to attack, he wasn't all that surprised, he was surprised she hadn't moved yet, unless she wanted to know the truth too. Huh.

"There are tons of people in the world with blond hair and blue eyes, Banner," Clint snorted derisively.

"Yes but..." he waved his hand at the wall and there was suddenly a picture of Clint and Steve side by side, and then an overlay of facial recognition software came over their faces and highlighted the similarities. There were...well more than just the eyes and hair, like the face shape, the nose, the cheekbones and the brow. Looking at them like that so close together and Clint really did look like Steve. 

"You're both pretty stubborn too, and you both have very strong moral compasses, you're similar enough that I'm surprised it wasn't recognized sooner, but there are enough differences that could be explained away by...a plethora of things...but it is true," Bruce said, as if explaining it all would make it better, but Clint was already tuning him out.

He stared at the screen. His whole body felt numb, he swallowed, this was too much, "That doesn't explain anything," he said, "So what? That doesn't mean I'm...I'm a fucking what? A clone made by Hydra?! That's fucking ridiculous, no, you're all fucking nuts, I'm- just no!" he threw his hands up in the air and turned on the spot, and went to storm out, but then there was a hand on his shoulder. He didn't think, he moved on instinct and then suddenly he was looking down at Steve, whom he'd flipped over his shoulder.

Steve weighed a lot, not many people could flip him, Steve himself had only ever been throw around by Thor and the Hulk, so he was staring up at Clint with open shock, and that was it, that was the end of the line.

Clint bolted.

Even after her silence on the whole issue Natasha didn't wait a second longer to move, she was up and after him in seconds, she shot Tony a cold look along the way, but said nothing, Clint was her priority.

Bruce looked after them, clearly distressed, he'd told Tony to wait, to not do it like this, and he hadn't listened, and now he felt responsible for it spinning out of control. It didn't help that the Other Guy was restless deep down inside of his subconscious, he really liked Clint, he didn't like seeing him upset or hurt. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Hopefully, things would work out in the end, they would figure it out.

"May I ask what purpose you thought to serve by that, Stark?" Thor rumbled in obvious disapproval.

"I..." Tony took a deep breath, "I was just trying to do what was best for the team, okay? If Clint had been a Hydra agent, we'd be dead now, but we're not, now we know the truth you're welcome," he said, but even that didn't come off as arrogant as he'd likely intended to cover up his own distress.

"That is not how this works, Stark, we're supposed to trust each other, and now...you've lost the trust of probably the whole team," Steve said, "You should have brought the matter to me first and then we could have proceeded from there, but you jumped the gun, like always and now you've made a mess of everything. And now I get to find out about the fact that Hydra used my DNA to create children and that one of them just so happens to be someone I already know."

Tony's face cracked a bit at that, "Steve, I'm...look I wasn't thinking-"

"No, you weren't," Steve sighed, "And now the team is a mess and I've got to clean it up, consider yourself benched for the foreseeable future, probably for your own safety," he said and then turned and left, Thor was only a moment behind him.

Tony swallowed down shame, and couldn't say anything even when Bruce squeezed his shoulder in solidarity? Reassurance? Because he felt he had to? Who knew, but he let go and left too after only a moment. He'd really made an idiot of himself this time, hadn't he?

~

Natasha followed after Clint, she wasn't entirely sure where he was headed not after all of that, "JARVIS, where is he going?" she asked because he would know best, assuming Clint wasn't in the vents. He only did that when he felt like pranking people, usually. This was not usual so all bets were off the table.

" _He is headed in the general direction of the gym, Agent Romanov,_ " he replied readily, as if he'd been waiting to help.

"Thank you," she said and rushed down the stairs to the floor with the gym, he'd really only had a minutes head start, but apparently it was enough for him to break a punching bag.

He was staring at his fist, while the bag swung around and sand spilled from a hole in the side. From what she could conclude, he'd punched it and it had burst, he was likely having an existential crisis right now.

"Clint..." she murmured, he didn't look up, he just kept staring at his hand. She moved closer to him, but she still kept her distance. Always weary in the face of the unknown.

"You think it's true? I'm some kind of experiment?" he murmured, she didn't reply, she only watched him closely. He kept staring at his hand for a long moment, his knuckles weren't even scraped. He'd never noticed he was more resilient than most people.

"I've never punched something that hard before," he muttered, "Maybe I am some kind of clone freak..."

"Clint..." she said softly, but he shook his head.

"It's true...I didn't really realize...but I've held back all my life, so I never would have known would I? I just...thought that was normal, that most people do the same, that 'using full strength' didn't strain your muscles to the point of breaking, I've never done that before, just thought I have, and...going really fast? I've run a pretty fast mile, I held the record for fastest mile on the Hellicarrier for ages but only by a few seconds I just...jesus...I'm a certifiable idiot, aren't I?" He slumped in defeat, his hand dropping to his side and his head dropping.

Natasha stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around him slowly so he knew what was coming, she had always done this, as he'd done to her, they both had assassins reflexes and surprising either one of them was not a wise move, "Now...just because you wanted so hard to be normal you ignored any superpowers you might have doesn't make you an idiot. Being you makes you an idiot," she teased gently.

He didn't reply to that, as if he hadn't heard her, just swallowed, "I have to go," he muttered, "I need to...SHIELD...I need to see," he was talking more to himself now than to her, he was really too engrossed in his own head to consider her words either. "There's no way they wouldn't have known, they wouldn't have hired me if they thought I was working for Hydra...I have to find out the truth..."

"Clint, please, don't be hasty," she said, squeezing him gently, "Don't dive into this, you're emotional-"

"Of course I'm emotional! I just found out my whole existence is a lie! Jesus! What the hell?!" he kicked at the bag sending it swinging again and sending more sand spilling out, he pulled away from her, "This is complete bullshit, I need to know the truth, and if more people knew. I just- this is so fucked up, goddammit!"

"You have a right to that information, but if you go storming into SHIELD I doubt you'll get what you want," she said evenly and he scoffed.

"I'm not completely incapable of subtly Natasha," he snapped, "But fine if you're not going to help, leave me alone," with that he spun around and marched out of the room.

Natasha let out a soft breath, but her mask not wavering, not yet. There was still time.

~

Breaking into SHIELD's secure files was easy, laughably easy, but Clint supposed most people couldn't just force the door open because most people couldn't lift as much as he could, and that was before the whole 'found out he's a supersoldier' thing, he supposed the fact that he could lift so much was due to that, but...he could do more now than before, so pulling the door open (about 300lbs of plated steel and iron), was just a bit hard, but not by much, then slip in the null card to prevent the alarm from going off, he didn't need anyone to come running. Luckily there weren't any security cameras in the immediate area and he'd been able to avoid them in the hall leading to it by climbing in through the vent, they really needed to fix that. Big hole in the whole system.

He had to take a moment to breath. To just acknowledge the fact that he could do that, and then let it go because now was not the time to fall apart.

He inhaled deeply and then slipped into the room, unaware that his presence had been detected anyway, but he was moving fast he'd never actually been in here before, he'd never had reason to, but now he needed to make sure....

The Secure Files were only secure because they were paper, not even a trace left on any source anywhere including the internet and other papertrails. It was supposed to be super confidential stuff like Watergate or Area 51 (okay probably not, but that was what Clint liked to pretend). Clint never thought there'd be any information on a carnie from hick country in there, but he went to the file cabinet marked 'B' and there it was:

**Barton, Clint F. (AKA Hawkeye)**

He pulled it out and opened it up and let out another breath, the first page was basic information, his full name, birthday, physical description, a picture, his parents and brother's names, all of the basics, weight, height, eye exams, strength and stamina tests, blood work-

But wait, that blood work...it was _off._ He had just seen some of his bloodwork, this was different. It wasn't his.

He flipped the page over and his eyes went wide, there was a secondary profile underneath. His name and most of his basic information was the same but everything else was different.

 _Name: Clinton Francis Barton_  
_DoB: Unknown (Estimated age 35-37)_  
_Height: 6' 0''_  
_Weight: 210lbs_  
_Eyes: Blue_  
_Hair: Blond_  
  
_Strength: Untested. Estimated 275lbs_  
_Speed: Untested. Estimated 35-40mph_  
_Intelligence: Tested, but results not adequate due to mental blocks._

_Blood work shows evidence of Super Soldier Serum also seen in the blood of Steve Rogers, there are matching Alleles evident in the DNA of Clint Barton to Steve Rogers. Patriarchal connection is confirmed._

He swallowed, his hands were shaking already, but still he continued on, turning the page.

His mother's picture was the first thing on the page he saw and then he saw Hydra and his heart stopped, but he took a deep breath to continue on, because he didn't know for sure what was on the page.

 _Name: Edith Abigail Barton (nee Johnson)_  
_DoB: April 15th 1955 (Died: July 22nd 1986)_  
_Education: High School Diploma_  
_Occupation: Childcare provider_

 _Edit: Information found: Edith Barton listed; employed by HR Solutions, noted to be a Hydra research lab, later discovered to be used solely for the purpose of recreating the Super Soldier Rebirth program through the use of children. It was found that babies were born with samples of Captain Rogers sperm and another unknown woman with traces of a different serum in the blood were used to create the child, and then the child was cloned as a base for the use of experiments._  
_Edith Barton was hired to tend to the cloned babies along with many other women in nearby towns, none knew of why or what was happening just that they were meant to care for the children._  
_All experimentation ceased due to a fire that took down the whole building, evidence found at the site indicate the fire was intentional. (Note: 6 other locations were discovered around the US and Europe with the same results. All were destroyed by arson.)_

_It is believed that Edith Barton retrieved a child from the burning building (Clint Barton) and took him home and was able to raise him as her own. Birth certificate is credible, Clint Barton legally listed as the son of Edith and Harold Barton. Noted that there is absolutely no blood relation between the Barton's and Clint Barton._

Clint had to stop reading, he had found out enough, just flipping through the other files confirmed that it was all accurate and there were detailed accounts of the Hydra base, and more blood results, and tests and psych evals and it was just too much to handle.

He grit his teeth together and shoved the file back into the cabinet, slamming the drawer closed, he turned to go and froze because he was not alone.

"Agent Barton," Director Fury said calmly, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"You knew? You knew the whole time?"

Fury stared at him a moment, calculating, and then nodded, "I did."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me?! You think I might've had a right to this kind of thing?!" he yelled, his voice didn't echo in the small place, but it was still loud.

"At first, we thought you knew, but when it was clear you were holding back we thought you could possibly be a plant, but when you were not triggered by any of the psychevals, and no hints seemed to present you with an opportunity to tell us, we assumed you simply wanted to pretend like it wasn't happening, and then of course after more psychological exams, it was discovered that you simply didn't know, and from gauging your happiness, we thought it might be best to keep it that way," Fury said, completely serious and up front and Clint wondered if it was the first time in his whole life he'd been so honest.

"So you never would have told me..." he muttered, "If Tony hadn't nosed his way in...." he swallowed, "So it's all true...I'm a clone baby of Captain America made by Hydra," he snorted, "Brilliant, and of course you didn't tell me because you wanted to keep me _happy_ , ha."

"You are the result of Hydra experimentation on the clone children of a single child, you could very well be the original, we don't know and never will." Nick said calmly and that only made Clint more irritated, "And yes, keeping you happy seemed to keep you more effective in the field, which is how we like our agents at SHIELD," he finished, and Clint pressed his lips together, he knew that. He'd known Nick a long time, fifteen years to be exact, and Clint knew Nick valued his agents, especially his top agents, and made sure they excelled at what they did and did whatever it took to keep them excelling. Clint had never thought he'd needed it before, but Nick had done what he thought he needed to. He understood, he wasn't so sure he liked it...but he understood. Damn.

"Would you have told me if I'd asked?" he asked, because that mattered, he was maybe a little relieved to see the director nod, "Right."

"You have time off duty to take some personal days, Agent Barton, and I will forget that you broke into the secure files if you tell me how you did it," he replied, the corner of his lip twitching slightly.

"I thought you'd left the path clear for me, Sir," he replied with a small grin, "But yeah, alright...and thanks I think I will take some time."

"Good, you've racked up enough vacation time to have the next two years off," he replied and Clint grinned, yeah, he figured that, he never took vacations.

"Yeah...you think I'm a Hydra sleeper or something?" he asked and Nick jerked his head in a firm no.

"No, from what I know, you've never been in touch with a member of Hydra or the failed reboots, and you were too young in the facility for them to plant things like trigger words in your mind, so no, I think you are completely you," he added the last bit because he knew what Clint was really asking.

Clint nodded again, "Okay," he muttered and then took a deep breath, "I'm gonna go now, I'll be back once I've figured out my shit."

"I would expect nothing less agent," Nick replied, "But do it quickly, I need you on in briefing on Tuesday at 0800."

Clint let out a slightly hysterical laugh, "Sure thing, Sir."

With that he got up and left the Secure Files room, he'd tell Nick about how he got in later, but he wouldn't tell him about the other two ways he knew he could use, just in case.

~

Clint didn't know what to do with himself at first, he really felt like ignoring the 'elephant in the room' would be the best option, maybe pretending it hadn't happened at all and he was back to being Clint nobody Barton, the most normal one of the Avengers. That sounded like fun, and easy and the best option really. But that wouldn't be fair. Both to himself, and to Steve. He knew he'd have to talk to him, the only problem was he didn't know how to broach the subject. He'd never really found it hard to talk to Steve before, but they'd just been teammates before, nothing more, maybe shared the occasional joke, but that was it. What the hell were they supposed to do now?

"Hey Steve, so you're my biological daddy, weird shit huh?" he muttered to himself where he was curled up on the edge of the roof of the Tower, he hadn't seen anyone at all yet, and it had been two days, he'd kept to himself and avoided everyone like the plague because he just didn't want to face it, he was regretting selling his old apartment too. Because it was either here, or the Hellicarrier and the Hellicarrier was still not a welcoming place for him at times, so it was here, that made things so much better.

He sighed and rubbed at his face, he knew there needed to be something done about this, he'd love to just move on, but that would be hard, especially when more than one person was involved. Steve had every right to have an opinion on the matter too.

"Hey Steve, can we pretend I'm not the fruit of your loins," he muttered aloud, and snorted because that sounded so much better, he groaned.

"I think I'd prefer to not have my loins snorted at," a voice said behind him and Clint startled enough he nearly fell off the building, but he leaned back at the last second and was able to save himself from becoming a Clint Pancake.

"Holy shit! Don't do that!" he gasped, turning to see Steve coming through the door and looking incredibly apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have surprised you like that," he said sincerely, and looking adequately chagrined, "Do you mind?" he gestured forward and Clint gazed at him for a moment and then shrugged, Steve took that as a yes and then sat down next to him, he gazed down at the ground a couple dozen stories below them and let out a breath.

"You certainly didn't get your love of heights from me," he said and Clint snorted at that, but it was bordering on hysterical.

Steve was silent for a long time, gazing out at the scene of the city, so different from the New York he'd grown up in, but still the same New York. But that wasn't something to think about now, there were more pressing matters at hand, "So..."

"So," Clint repeated, then sighed, "I honestly have no idea what to say."

"I guess I can start?" Steve shrugged, "I'm really sorry we had to find out like that, more so you, that was...Tony was out of line, and he's been benched, so don't worry about him for now. But I am sorry...I guess I'm responsible regardless of how it happened, I should have made sure my DNA was-"

"Steve," Clint interrupted, "There is no possible way you could have known that some Hydra wannabes would use your blood to make babies some forty years after you 'died', don't be stupid," he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah but-" Steve started and Clint shot him a look, he held up his hands in surrender and laughed, "Okay, okay."

"Apparently I get the self deprecation and self blame from you," Clint said dryly, and Steve offered him a small smile.

"How are you dealing?" he asked and Clint shrugged.

"As well as I can be, I guess...you?"

"The same," Steve replied, "I mean it is a little odd having a child that is technically older than me, but...I've had stranger things happen to me."

"Mm," Clint grunted in reply, he certainly couldn't argue with that. He was quiet for a long time, and Steve let him be, they just sat there, staring off into space. After some serious thought, Clint sighed, "You know, when I was about five...I had a Captain America doll...or figure, whatever, it came with some of the comics, and I thought 'he looks just like me, he could be my daddy, I wish he was', and then I'd have grand fantasies of Captain America coming to rescue me from my life, of course that never happened, but...I wonder what five year old me would think knowing that Captain America really was my dad...."

Steve wasn't sure what to say to that, he only knew the basics of Clint's home life and what Clint had said earlier, but for a five year old to wish for a different dad...well, that was pretty eye opening and heart breaking, he felt his chest clench and did not like the thought of Clint being so sad he had to wish to be rescued, "I wish-"

"Don't say you wish you'd been there to save me, I will push you off the building," Clint said with an eye roll, "I was a kid, and you were frozen in the Atlantic, there was literally nothing you could have done."

"Okay, okay, bossy," Steve said and Clint smirked, "But I still wish you'd had better, a better life..."

"Hmm," Clint hummed because he couldn't say much to that it hadn't been all bad, but yeah, better might have been nice, "...if I was in a better mood, I would have gotten you a cake."

"A cake?" Steve asked, looking confused and a little thrown from the sudden change of subject.

"Yeah...'It's a Boy' seems appropriate," he drawled and Steve barked out a surprised laugh.

"Yes, I suppose it is, maybe we should make up on a few decades of playing catch too while we're at it?"

"Some baseball games too, and then maybe help me get my first car," Clint drawled, he snorted a laugh. "Well...I guess it's good it won't be awkward."

"No it won't, that is good," Steve agreed, "But...I guess...you might be a good sparring partner now."

"Now? Excuse me, but I've always been a good sparring partner, you don't need strength and speed to take down your uncoordinated ass," Clint grinned, relaxing, maybe things really would be okay.

"Is that so? Why don't we take it to the gym and find out," Steve said with a matching grin.

"You are so on," he said hopping up, ready to move after so many days of inaction.

"Slow down there, sport," Steve drawled and Clint snorted and punched him in the arm.

"You're going down, old man," Clint replied heading for the door, "I haven't sparred in ages, not since Natasha got back from-" He stopped and slowed his step to a stop, he frowned.

"Clint?" Steve asked, worried by the sudden change again, he hoped this wasn't a usual occurrence.

"Natasha...she didn't react," he frowned, "I'm sorry, Cap, bonding time is going to have to take the back seat...I've gotta talk to Nat," he muttered, heading through the door before Steve could open his mouth again.

~

Bruce was cleaning up Tony's lab because he knew the other man wouldn't do it, he was probably locked in his other lab being worked over by his guilt, and yeah, Bruce understood that, he felt guilty too. He still remembered the look of shock and upset on Clint's face, he would apologize to him later, after giving him some time. It was really not fair, what had happened, he should have made Tony slow down, he-

"Come on, Banner, keep it together," he muttered, he couldn't let his own guilt consume him. Then he wouldn't be any help at all and Hulk would be far too emotionally invested.

He took a deep calming breath and went back to clearing out the information on the server, if anyone else got their hands on Clint's true parentage well, Bruce really didn't want to think about what people could do with that.

He was just about to take care of things when he noticed something, all of the evidence they had had to do with Steve's blood matching Clint's...but you couldn't make babies with blood, and it was clear that Clint was not a clone of Steve so...how the hell had he been made if all they had was blood?

Bruce sat down and started digging again, it appeared that Steve's blood had been distributed to any scientist with a history of blood work to try and find the secret to the serum, with no luck.

Bruce frowned and then let out a breath, "JARVIS? Is...ah Captain Rogers available?"

" _He is indeed Dr. Banner, shall I request his presence?_ " the AI replied and Bruce bit his lip but eventually thought it through.

"If you could, please, yes," he said, and took another breath. It only took about five minutes for Steve to get down there he looked both firm and confused.

"Dr. Banner?" he asked and Bruce nodded then gesture towards the screen.

"I thought it might be a good idea to scrub the information we'd collected, just on the off chance that it got out, unlikely...but I figured it's better to do it than take chances," he said and Steve nodded, relaxing a fraction, he then gestured at Bruce to carry on, sensing that wasn't all.

"Well...I need to ask you something...ah...a bit private," he said and rubbed the back of his head, "When...when they took blood samples did they...ah...take other samples?"

"If you're asking if I jacked off for science, Dr. Banner, you don't need to be so awkward about it," Steve said with a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes, Bruce coughed and stared at him for a moment.

"You know...I'm starting to see stunning similarities between your and Clint's senses of humor," he said and Steve chuckled softly, "And yes...I did want to know if you had ever given a sample of semen for research."

"Yeah, I did, but I was told they wouldn't...mmm...live for too long in a tube, so..." Steve shrugged.

"That's true, they were likely frozen, but maybe they have the same response to being frozen that you do, they could have been frozen and then used to make the super children," Bruce sighed and turned towards the screen.

"You really think so?" Steve was skeptical, he didn't have super sperm did he?

"It's the only explanation I can think of that makes sense-ah!" Bruce leaned forward, "In 1978 a sample was stolen from a secure facility, but because they were a cover for SHIELD no one knew it was your...ah..baby juice, until it was too late...but...hmm, there was an investigation," Bruce murmured, "A SHIELD agent was apprehended and well it looks like he was working for Hydra all along and had just infiltrated them to get the sample...I guess that explains that..." Bruce sighed and then exited out and continued deleting things, "Sorry about that Captain, thank you for coming, even if it wasn't very conclusive..."

"It's alright...sort of worth it to see you pink instead of green," he said easily, "But it's really okay...I know this whole...thing wasn't your fault, Tony needs to slow down sometimes..." he sighed, "It's just a surprise...I'm sure we'll work everything out, we all just need time to adjust."

Bruce nodded, "Of course," he said and looked at Steve for a moment, "Don't forget to take care of yourself while you're helping everyone else, it can't be easy to suddenly find out that your teammate just so happens to be your child...and knowing his background...you can't blame yourself for anything Steve, it was all out of your control."

Steve nodded, "Yes, thank you, doctor," he said and turned to go, he knew Bruce was right, he shouldn't blame himself, but still a part of him did. It looked like he needed some time after all. 

~

Clint was one of the only people alive who could sneak up on Natasha Romanov, and that was chalked down to the fact that she no longer sensed his presence like she did everyone else, he was a friendly. There was trust.

Clint hoped at least.

When she came in, she didn't notice him at first, and when she did, well reflexes being what they were. She whipped around and pulled a pistol out of thin air, she had it aimed at his head for only a second until she realized it was him.

"Clint," she said with relief, "What are you-"

"You knew," he said and watched as her face blanked out, so she wasn't going to deny it then, "When Tony was shooting his mouth off, you didn't even look surprised. And afterwards in the gym, you didn't try to convince me he was wrong, because you already knew he was right," And damn Natasha had been so intent on the moment she'd forgotten to react accordingly, but it was better this way, at least she wouldn't be keeping anything from him, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

She let out a soft breath, "I didn't know until after knowing you for awhile, and by then...I thought you knew and was giving you the chance to tell me, and when you didn't...I figured you simply wanted to ignore it," she said, and it really was as simple as that, and it seemed easy to forget with how Clint acted so normal, but every time he brought it up, well it had made her wonder, was it simply an act? Was he trying to fool himself? It was the one part of Clint Barton that left Natasha wondering and without answers.

His lips pinched in that way she knew meant he was trying to decide to believe her or not, "...fine," he muttered, "Fine, but Jesus...why-" he threw his hands up in frustration.

"Clint, I am sorry, if I had looked into it more...I'm sure this wouldn't have happened, I-"

"No...dammit, no it's fine," he rubbed his face, "I'm just...dammit, you, Nick, I wonder if Coulson knew too, everyone knew before me, and I could still be a Hydra sleeper," he snorted. "Lucky me."

"I doubt it," Natasha said and Clint looked at her, frowning, "You would have barely been a year old while in their custody, you would have been too young for them to do anything, they wouldn't want to impede natural growth by planting something in your head...they would have started around the age of six," she said and Clint frowned.

"Well I don't remember anything other than my parents dying at that age," he said and sighed, "But who knows, maybe something happened in the orphanage...naw...no one paid me enough attention for that..." He said, so he really was just an experiment gone rogue, huh, how funny. He was curious as to how no one had found him earlier and tried to recruit him for Hydra, surely any remnants would have tried. Unless they were gone, all of the bits of Hydra they'd encountered over the years had been fractured, pale replicas of what it had once been, trying desperately to cling to the ideals of the monsters in the past. They had been eradicated easily. Hydra wasn't an issue anymore. 

"You are completely your own person, Clint," she said and he nodded, but he still didn't seem happy, she watched him for a long moment and then opened her mouth hoping it was a good idea, "I knew your biological mother."

His head whipped around to look at her, eyes wide and unsure, "She was in the Black Widow training...'class' after me, they had considered me for the mission, but by the time they had decided I'd already been initiated. She was very skilled, her name was Sofia, she was chosen and sent off to Hydra to fulfill the role of 'mother' for the Hydra Rebirth program, she had seven children," she said as if reciting a file from memory, "Each was sent off to a different facility around the world, one of the babies did not make it...every time she returned after a child...she was less herself, and more an empty shell," her lips twisted into a harsh smile, "More than an empty shell that we were meant to be, she was broken by losing so much of herself each time...when it came to the time for her to graduate...she let me kill her."

Clint was silent for a long moment, "So my mom was a Black Widow and my dad is Captain America...wow," he said and snorted, "Alright then."

Natasha stepped towards him slowly, and then gently set her hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, Clint."

He took a deep breath and pressed his fists to his eyes, "Yeah...yeah, I've gotta...I need some time to myself, tell Fury I can't do any missions right now, I just...I need to get away."

"Alright," she said softly, letting her hand slip from his shoulder as he started towards the door, "Be safe."

He bobbed his head in affirmation and the door closed with a click.

~

Clint made it down to his apartment somehow, he was so raw, he wasn't sure what to feel. He was numb, and empty, like someone had scooped everything out and hadn't bothered to replace anything. Like he'd been robbed. And essentially, he had, he'd been robbed of the identity he'd had all his life and he had no idea how to reconcile who he knew himself as now to who he'd been just a few days ago. He really needed something, he just didn't know what.

As if answering his silent pleas his phone buzzed. Not his normal phone, no, one of the burner phones he had for missions. It buzzed again and his heart started to race.

 _No way_.

He hadn't gotten a contact in over two years. He'd thought it was over, but apparently he'd just been trying to protect himself, like he usually did, and thank god he was wrong, if this was what, or rather who he thought it was.

He walked over to the drawer it was in and pulled it out, two messages were on it. 

 **[UNKNOWN: Text]** _Ichaival_    
**[UNKNOWN: Text]** _1842 71st Benson Hurst_  
  
Clint let out a relieved laugh that was probably closer to a sob. Salvation.

Anyone else who saw it wouldn't know what to make of it, but Clint, he'd been doing this for years, he knew exactly what it meant. It was a codeword and a location. And it would lead him to the one person in the world he felt like being with right then. The one person who accepted him as he came, and would listen to him, and not breath a word about it to anyone. He packed a backpack, and took a few necessities and then left the Tower in a matter of minutes.

He rode his bike to the location, it was a normal brick front townhouse, it had a 'for sale' sigh out front, that was nothing new either, they usually met in places like this, somewhere they left no trace. Clint stopped his bike and locked it up before going to the front door and knocking out a rhythm, there was silence from the other side, but he knew he was there, "Ten is always better than one," he said and then the door unlocked, he slipped in and saw a shadow slip into the kitchen.

He smiled when he smelled the coffee, he closed the door and locked it then set his bag down on the stairs and followed the shadow into the kitchen, he leaned against the door frame and watched as his savior puttered around the kitchen, "You're so cute when you're domestic."

That earned him a glare, he chuckled and then moved in and slumped against his black clad back, "I've had a hell of a week..." he muttered and felt so much better when the body supporting him turned around and wrapped strong arms around him.

"Need anything special?" he asked softly, voice always rough like it wasn't used much. Clint figured it wasn't, but he didn't mind.

"Yeah and this is gonna sound super cheesy, but it's true...you," Clint said and pressed up for a kiss, he responded easily, hand coming up to cup Clint's cheeks, "You're my hero right now...I just didn't know what to do...I found out some stuff...and I just...." He let out a soft huff of air, "James...I'm so glad to see you."

A silver hand ran through blond hair, "I'm glad to see you too...it's been too long," he muttered, "Tell me anything you need to...you know I'm always here for you."

"Yeah...I know," Clint said and folded himself easily into the other man's arms relaxing in his presence, feeling safe and secure, he was unknowingly in the embrace of Hydra's number one weapon, the Winter Soldier, who knew _exactly_ who he was.

He pulled Clint towards the bedroom, he obviously needed to forget about things for awhile, and this was the only way he knew how without talking too much. He'd only been defrosted about ten hours ago and still didn't know all of his mission parameters. He just knew to do this, he'd been briefed and instructed on what to do with this mission, and he carried out successfully, like all of his missions. And once Clint was asleep after the more physically exhausting maneuvers of the mission, he curled up on his James' chest unbeknownst to the whole thing, and that he had one more thing to do...to let them know.

 **[UNKNOWN: MSG SENT]** _Confirmed meeting._  
  
**[UNKNOWN: MSG RE]** _Acknowledged. Remain with target. Await further orders._

James deleted the messages and put his phone aside, then returned his hand to Clint's head, running his fingers through blond hair, he didn't know why...but he felt like he knew him from somewhere before. The act seemed familiar, and then the motions, like he'd done them dozens of times already, but it was so new to him. He was sure this was the first time. But there was something else...in the back of his mind...but no, he put it even further back. It didn't matter. Only his mission mattered.

Clint mumbled something in his sleep, and nuzzled closer to James, arm wrapped around his waist and face pressed into his neck, James let out a soft breath.

This was just the start of things. He knew that...but he wished this would last for a lot longer than a night.


	2. TEASER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's like a teaser trailer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think of this as an outtake/deleted scene. It has really nothing to do with the story. But wanna keep your pallets wet. ;D Plus it's funny.

"You are stepping on my foot."

"Am not, and you're welcome to move your arm from stabbing me in the kidney it might help your foot."

"I don't think that's how-"

"Shh!" 

Clint and James were pressed up tight together in the hall closet, Clint and James' bags at their feet, Clint's back was pressed up against James' chest, and their legs were tangled together and Clint had one arm wrapped around James' middle to prevent himself from falling against the door. 

Why were they in the hall closet of the house they'd been at? 

Well see, it was for sale, it only made sense that there was a showing for it for people who wanted to check it out and decide if they wanted to buy it or not. After all it was a fairly nice little place, Clint had grown fond of it the few days they'd been here. But these people had taken them by surprise. They'd heard the car drive up the voices talking, and luckily they were both the types to clean up after themselves when they're hiding out, all they had to do was snatch up their shit and move to somewhere to hide. The closet had been closest. It was also a lot smaller than it looked.

Having two very muscular men squeezed into it to hide from a realtor and a nice family was likely not something the builder had in mind during the planning process. It was a good sized closet, about two by two feet, but neither Clint nor James would be considered 'small' guys. So being shoved in a cramped space trying to be quiet while this family checked out the house was not exactly fun.

Even if Clint's ass was pressed up against James' crotch. So close it was probably rubbing the other man's dick and driving him crazy.

"Stop moving," James growled low into Clint's ear, Clint couldn't help but shiver in delight. Smirking just a bit as he moved his hips a little. James growled again and Clint had to shove his fist in his own mouth to stop himself from laughing.

They quieted when they heard footsteps passing by, the realtor was doing her thing talking about the history of the house, the refurbishing, all that jazz as they walked down the hall. And that's when someone put their hand on the closet door to open it.

James was fast, his metal hand was holding onto the other door handle, preventing it from opening. making it appear stuck or locked. The person tried a few more times and then moved on.

Clint let out a near silent breath of relief. And then had to stop himself from squeaking because then he had a pair of hips pressed up tight against his, hard enough he could feel the semi-hard cock in the pants of the man behind him.

"Shit," he hissed and he felt the lips now pressed against his neck smirking, "You're a little shit," Clint hissed at him and then had to bite his lip to once again keep noises inside of his mouth as the hips rubbed against him again.

Clint could play dirty too, he moved slowly, and silently, moving his hand down until it was slipping into James' pants and his fingers wrapped around his dick and started rubbing the tip gently.

The quick intake of breath from the other man let Clint know how well James was effected by that, and Clint really couldn't find it in himself to stop. The thought that they could still be caught at any second made him even more excited. They'd likely be seen as squatters, and that was okay, better than two assassins on a holiday together.

Even less of a good idea for two assassins getting off on each other in the closet while the nice family with the ten year old was walking by, Clint heard them talking as they walked by, to go upstairs, and his hand was still in James' pants finger now spreading precum over his tip and he could feel his breath quick on his neck, and then there was a hand sneaking into his own pants and _shit_. 

Clint gasped softly, and tried very hard to keep the groan to himself but it was hard and it came out sounding something like a deflating balloon, "Shit," he hissed again and could still feel that smirk on his neck and oh, that was just so sneaky. Oh god he loved it though, he had to have more. He wondered what he could do to egg him on more. He was trying very hard to keep it together himself with the flesh hand wrapped around his own dick, moving as much as it could within the confines of his fairly tight pants, when he decided to fuck it.

Clint twisted his hand suddenly and felt the other man buck up into his hand and inadvertently against him, which led to Clint bucking against the door, and well it was like dominoes, they hadn't really had good footing to begin with and seeing as the door swung out they fell against it and suddenly they were spilling out of the closet, and landing on the hallway floor, and they froze, Clint watched wide eyed as the front door closed none of the family even looking at them and then the door closed with a click, then it was locked and they were walking away.

There was silence in the house for a very long minute and then Clint burst out laughing, he took his hand back from James' hand so he could catch his breath, really it was hilarious, they were utterly ridiculous. Like two horny teenagers hiding from their parents as they fucked around. He couldn't help it. 

James removed his hand too, and Clint giggled helplessly still, until a flesh and metal hand were pulling up his hips, and then there was a very prominent bulge pressed up against Clint's ass again.

"You _were_ stepping on my foot," James murmured in his ear and Clint shivered again, James was sure to rub him hard, get him worked up, and Clint wasn't really up for a snappy comeback at the moment.

And then James stood up and headed down the hall.

Clint blinked and then spluttered, "You goddamn little shit!" he called, and only received a smirk before the kitchen door closed, hiding him from view. 

Clint groaned and laid out on the ground for a moment, because good lord, he was a bad influence on that man, but he was really finding it hard to regret. He gazed at the kitchen door for a long moment, and then he smirked.

He didn't think it would be too hard to persuade James to bend him over the counter and fuck him senseless, after all, they were still full of adrenaline, and a little bit of fun after a stressful situation was good for the soul.

He got up, kicked their bags into the closet, closed it and then went to go find James. 

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Ichaival is Odin's bow. It would split into ten arrows after being shot. Clint would OWN that.
> 
> Double Note: Okay WEIRD SHIT, as of writing this the address in the text, I made up right? And then was like 'EEEH LET'S SEE?!' and it turns out it's a REAL LOCATION and what's weirder...IT'S FOR SALE and I wrote the thing BEFORE KNOWING THAT.  
> I am psychic. Worship me. XD (ALSO HOLY SHIT THE PLACE IS EXPENSIVE!!!)
> 
> But for reals, I hope this was well liked. And I also hope it's obvious we are not even close to done yet. More is coming.
> 
> UPDATE: Currently the sequel/next chapter is in the works but has grown substantially in length, I want to finish it before I post it...so...it will be awhile before there is more. BUT THERE IS MORE COMING.


End file.
